Operation Ajax (A Game of Skill and Chance)

A turn of a wheel, a roll of the dice, a whispered word, a decision made and a democracy destroyed. So it is in The Butane Group’s very topical Operation Ajax (A Game of Skill and Chance), which tells the gripping story of the 1953 CIA-led coup which overthrew Iran’s first — and so far, only — democratically-elected government.

In 1953, Iran’s elected Prime Minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, nationalized the country’s oil industry, an action the U.S. government would not tolerate. Operation Ajax introduces audiences to über-spy Kermit Roosevelt (Teddy’s grandson), the CIA operative assigned to the operation who masterminded Mossadegh’s fall and the reinstatement of the Shah. But while Roosevelt was successful in his mission, things became disastrous as the Shah imposed a tyranny that led to the 1979 Islamic Revolution and eventually brought about the frightening instability still present in the Middle East. Set in a mythical casino, this densely-layered performance piece explores how the addiction to high-stakes gambling with other nations’ futures has become a potent metaphor for U.S. foreign policy all over the world, right up to the present moment.

Operation Ajax is constructed from more than 30 text sources, including James Bond films and novels, History Channel documentaries, reality TV shows about addiction, Kermit Roosevelt’s memoirs, Mossadegh’s speeches, the writings of Gore Vidal, Taziyeh texts (classical Persian passion plays) and contemporary Iranian poetry. Directed by Noel Salzman, the production features long-time Richard Foreman stalwart Jay Smith as well as Dorothy Abrahams, Albert Aeed, Rodney Hakim, Gavin Starr Kendall, Kelly Markus, and Nicholas Warren-Gray.